


"Magic Is Real, Dumbass" -the guy without magic

by scrawly_times



Category: Mystery Skulls Animated, 僕のヒーローアカデミア | Boku no Hero Academia | My Hero Academia
Genre: Alternate Universe - Magic, Alternate Universe - Reincarnation, Magic-User Midoriya Izuku, Midoriya Izuku Does Not Have One for All Quirk, Quirkless Midoriya Izuku
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-01-14
Updated: 2019-01-17
Packaged: 2019-10-10 01:44:43
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 3
Words: 7,364
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17416613
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/scrawly_times/pseuds/scrawly_times
Summary: Tragedy and a catastrophic event of eldritch proportions strikes all of Musutafu and everyone is helpless to stop It. Nobody can even touch It. It is beyond anything anyone can do.When the dust fades people are dead, comatose, and worse,  but it's over. The world at large scrambles to realize and accept that magic and the supernatural are a part of their world while Musutafu is just preoccupied with figuring out how a guy with a really loud quirk and a circle of his own blood made the Thing even All Might couldn't touch go AWAY.Knowledge about Mystery Skulls Animated needed to understand this fic: absolutely none. MSA canon/fandom knowledge only makes it angsty and painful.





	1. Eldritch Monstrosities Are Bad For Everyone

**Author's Note:**

> HEY GUYS What up Ive had this general idea stuck in my head for literal months and I had a word vomit today about it that turned out pretty damn cool so have at it!! 
> 
> Minor explanations necessary: this takes place during the first months of Izuku going to UA. (He is in fact "quirkless" and does not have One For All)
> 
> Warnings for the chapter: general eldritch animation mindfuckery, lots of blood, and cynicism ahoy

There is something horrible, terrible, beyond description covering Musutafu.

It's blacker than black, darker than pitch darkness, a void beyond even a black hole. It defies description and defies comprehension and it hurts their heads and minds to look at, to hear, to feel.

They know it's there, everyone does, but nobody can look at it, the Dark blanket encompassing every inch of the city and stretching through it in tendrils and clouds and undefined shapes nobody can explain. Too many people fall motionless, eyes and ears and nose bleeding, because they try to look at it.

They try and try to explain to unravel to _understand_ but in the end despite trying an entire city can state nothing concrete about it, only that it is Something.

Something that none of them can touch. Something that shoots fear and terror though them for no other reason than that it _is._ Something that every civilian, hero, and villain cannot fight or combat or keep away.

Morals and ethics and laws are shoved aside and everyone except the worst, the twisted, the beyond humanity help each other. Help each other run. Help each other hide. Lay low. Avoid the stretching Darkness that seeks human life and warmth. No human being wants to be caught in it. No human being wants _anything_ to be caught in it.

Heroes ignore villains crouched next to them on the streets, life paused and halted in one horrible explosion of sound and Darkness, cars in streets and people streaming in and out of buildings as everyone learns that _walls do not protect them._

Heroes and villains and vigilantes and civilians try to fight the Something. Nothing stops it. Nothing touches it. Nothing harms it.

When the Dark tendrils and patches and swirls reach out to people who can't run, can't dodge, can't avoid it, they swarm and surround and the person stops being. They stand. Motionless. A shadow. A skin left where there used to be a person.

Yuuei is struggling, heroes gathering and trying to come up with a solution, a plan, _something._ But Something is still there. Swallowing minds. Swallowing people. Defying comprehension.

Yuuei's guiding hand, Principal Nedzu, is down in the first minute the Darkness spread over the city. He stares, mind racing, and staff and students watch in horror as his eyes turn to horror, then terror, then glaze over until he collapses shaking and bleeding from eyes and ears.

Recovery Girl has him in her office along with whatever other poor souls look at the Something too long. Maybe if this ends she can help them. For now, she can only watch over them.

The school isn't on lockdown. There is no hiding from this Something. There is no point. They can't protect anyone.

When All Might charges a Shape, the twisting tendril seeking out his students, the children cheer.

The Something moves.

That was it.

All Might barely pulls his students away in time to avoid the grab the Darkness makes at them. Their cheers and hope die. Even All Might can do nothing, has no ability to touch this thing-

A voice.

It is _loud,_ ringing out and speaking some language none of them know. It is too loud to understand. It is so loud the walls shake, the building trembles, glass is long shattered, the roof is going to cave. It is so loud the voice reaches across the city and destroys everything within a nearby radius. Only Yuuei's advanced construction withstands the sheer power. Barely. _Barely._

It is someone speaking. Someone shouting. Someone talking and cursing and howling something that makes no sense.

_The Darkness trembles._

The staff tells students to stay away, to run, to keep away from the Something. The teachers, _heroes,_ run. Yuuei is at the epicenter of the voice. Whoever it is, is _here._ Someone is affecting the Something.

They find the roof of a building in one of Yuuei’s training grounds, high above anything else, blood smeared in twisted shaking symbols. The building shaked and nearly collapses from the voice's sheer volume, but the voice continues. They can't even get close enough to the same building the person is on. Their ears are bleeding even from several buildings away.

The Darkness is centered on him. He is shouting. A voice quirk? Or something more?

He is speaking and the Something is _twisting_ and trembling and they all feel _fear_ and horrible dark things they can't explain writhing around them and inside them and

* * *

 

Suddenly, the Something wasn't.

It was like a fog lifted from all their minds. Their heads worked clearly and the world made _sense_ again.

The heroes stood absently on the top of a suddenly still building, trying to understand what their minds had seen and what influence had just _left_ their minds. They slowly converged on the building he was on, all of them gathering around and nearby and not knowing quite what to do now that they could think properly. Half of them were deaf, hopefully temporarily. All of them were weak and stumbling on their feet. 

All Might, in his heroing form, walked forwards to the man standing in a circle of his own blood written into unfamiliar script.

“Sir.” He was too tired, too broken, too unsteady to be polite or heroic.

The man was blond, dressed in nothing but a tank top and sweatpants, long hair thrown up into a messy bun, as if he'd been asleep when this had all started. Not that anyone was ready. None of them remembered how long the… the Something…

It defied their own _memories._ None of them really remembered what exactly had happened, or for how long. It could have been minutes or days and they had no _idea._ Only that it had been Dark, and that it had been Terrible, and that they had _Lost_ people, and that this man had somehow _stopped_ it.

“Hm?” The man turned around slightly, looking exhausted and pale. “Oh. I'm sorry. Yuuei was the closest place I could think of that could withstand the decibels my quirk gets to.” His voice was scratchy and somehow both loud and quiet after the shouting had stopped.

“Sir, what did you do?” All Might rasped.

“I stopped it.” He swayed dangerously and looked down at the bloody drawings all around him. “Think I went too far. Barely remembered the right stuff. Think… think I had to use too much blood.” The man looked up and blinked at all the heroes as if he was only just actually registering them. “I'm… I'm sorry I couldn't stop it sooner. I'm sorry. I'm- sss…” His eyes rolled up in his head slowly and he fell to the ground, none of them near enough to catch him. The ones fast enough weren't _aware_ enough even with the near slow motion he fell in.

Cementoss shook his head, trembled, and made some motions with his hands. The floor under them trembled and ground out noises of rock and cement shifting. “The building is going to collapse soon.” He explained tiredly. Unsaid was his doubt he could hold the building up for very _long_ with how weak he was right now.

“Try to- someone. Try to remember. Or mark down those writings.” Eraserhead ground out, rubbing his head, fighting a massive migraine on top of his eyes and ears slowly starting to trickle blood. He swayed and Midnight caught him unsteadily. Most of the heroes were supporting each other at that point.

All Might was the one who stepped forwards, trying to dodge bloody writing but failing and getting blood splatters all over his boots. He picked up the unconscious, bloodied blond from the middle of the wreckage and nodded in exhaustion to the rest of the teachers. He jumped off the rooftop and headed towards what remained of the school and to Recovery Girl.

* * *

 

“Hello, deary, I'm glad at least _one_ of my patients is back in the world of the living.” A sweet, grandmotherly voice brought him from vaguely aware to something closer to consciousness.

He stared up at the white ceiling. He squinted and blinked harshly, fighting a headache and dizziness and his thoughts slurring over themselves. Yikes. He hadn't felt like _this_ since-

Oh. Yeah, that was the feeling of blood loss. Probably pretty severe too. Exhaustion, spiritually and emotionally and mentally. Probably physically too. Did blood loss count as physical exhaustion?

Ugh, he was just exhausted in every way possible and it _sucked._

He idly listened to the grandmotherly voice listing off his symptoms for him while he stared listlessly up at the ceiling.

Oh _yay,_ quirk exhaustion too. Apparently his throat was nearly filleted after that stunt. She lectured him a little bit on it but it was clearly half hearted.

“What's your name, young man?”

He sighed and thought for a few seconds before deciding _fuck it,_ he'd had a nice run so far. Not like he cared if they blamed the whole shebang on him. Even if he _was_ the one who _stopped_ it.

“Yamada Hizashi.” Oh wow, yeah, his voice was fucked up and that _hurt._

“Well, Yamada, you've got a lot of people who want to ask you some questions.”

He turned his head to finally look at the elderly woman. He was a little surprised at how small she was but then shrugged, wincing at how it jostled his neck.

“Kinda expected it.” He rasped. He mostly expected them to be accusing and unbelieving of whatever he told them. Like usual.

She snorted and shook a finger at him. “Now young man, I don't know exactly what you did, but don't take that tone with me, I think we're all well aware that _whatever_ you did, it saved all of our lives.”

More than just their lives, but semantics. He swallowed dryly and raised his eyes back up to the ceiling since he didn't really have anything else to look at.

“Fortunately you'll have some more time to rest, everyone's more busy handling the fallout of…” He turned his head quickly to see her eyes glaze slightly before she shook her head and continued. “Whatever… it was. There's people hurt, comatose, or having seizures across the city. Not to mention the infrastructural damage from your quirk.” She lightly swatted him on the arm when he stared at her in disbelief. “You _did_ do quite a lot of damage!” She chastised.

“That wasn't what I was staring over.” He muttered. Few people could go through That kind of stuff and then just _shake it off_ like an unpleasant memory. He _knew_ throughout the city right now there were people staring off into space or babbling hysterically or just plain flipping their _shit._ And here this old woman was just shaking her head and moving on.

Well that really made him feel pathetic now. The thought of That was making _him_ start to dissociate and he was _used_ to this shit.

“You may be facing some difficulties and charges over your quirk usage, as foolish as it may be.” She huffed under her breath, puttering over to the blood bag attached to a drip on his right arm and _oh._ His left arm was out and visible and- “But primarily, Yamada, everyone just wants to know _what_ you did and how you knew to do it.”

He took a deep breath and let it out.

“I don't doubt it.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Arthur Kingsmen and Hizashi Yamada have so much in common when you really think about it and I l o v e this whole au because m a n y reasons I'll get into as it develops 
> 
> Technically, Musutafu wasn't COMPLETELY helpless. What few magic users are scattered around the city did their best to protect people. While it wasn't super successful, it was more than what just quirks can do. 
> 
> The being is specifically made super vague and shir because... the human mind literally cannot comprehend it. Like. 1: it's not a matter of It being powerful. It's just the sheer fact that it's NOTHING that is supposed to or CAN exist and interact with reality as we know it. Less of a power scale and more just "it's on a chart nobody knows how to read or even look at" and the human mind Knows when shit is WRONG 2: it actually is really powerful on top of that and trying to actively "hurt" people. At this point the human mind stops working and kinda breaks. 
> 
> Yes bloody blond guy is Hizashi. He's not a hero in this AU bcz he's a lot too cynical for that. Still wants to help people though. How does he know how to stop the Thingie??? I'll get to that eventually 
> 
> (Recovery Girl reacts how she does bcz she's old and badass and metal as fuck and thems facts) 
> 
> Hizashi's quirk is strong enough we see him make solid soundwaves. When sound reaches that decibel, it can and will level buildings and kill people. Hizashi scrambled to the first place he could yell his stuff at the top of his lungs and risk hurting fewer people. There's still probably going to be hearing issues amongst the people at the school, either now or in the future, and there's a LOT of property damage, but nobody's really permanently deaf because he tried really hard to keep it from hurting people. He just needed ALL OF MUSUTAFU to be able to hear it, just in case the being decided to be cagey. But since he isn't a hero in this universe, he doesn't have his directional speaker, OR proper training with his quirk
> 
> Though idk why I'm explaining this as it will probably end up as exposition later lol 
> 
> I hope you guys enjoyed and are excited for the future! I am :) Next chapter has what Izuku was doing during the Thing and how class 1-A made it through with no casualties


	2. Izuku's a What and All Mights Knows WHAT?

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Izuku and All Might are both involved in things more than anyone realizes, right now. Later on they'll be questioned. Right now everyone just takes what help they can offer.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thanks guys for!!! Appreciating!! This!!! I promise it's gonna get more interesting :> just you wait

Once the Sound had happened and the fear had started spreading through him, Izuku had gone into panic mode and _acted._

While everyone else stared and began running around, terrified because their deepest instincts were screaming that everything was _wrong,_ he'd grabbed the nearest marker and began drawing on the nearest wall. His classmates had been too busy panicking to ask him what the fuck he was doing.

At least until the unnatural fear had begun to sink in and they were figuring out how to think around it. Once they started thinking, even just barely, the few students who hadn't immediately crowded up to the windows to see if they could see what the Thing was noticed his actions.

By that time he'd gotten an entire line of script drawn around the room and was marking up the doorframe, standing on top of two desks he'd hurriedly stacked together to just barely reach the top.

“Deku what on earth are you doing?!” Uraraka whined, hands wringing and twisting together.

“Warding.” It slipped from his mouth before he could stop it, along with a long ramble. “I'm not sure what It is and I'm not good enough at serious magic to keep It out so the best possible path is to make us _invisible_ to It-”

“MAGIC?!” Bakugou exploded a desk. “WHAT FUCKING BULLSHIT ARE YOU SHITTING OUT YOUR MOUTH, FUCKING DEKU-”

“Keep calm!” Aizawa's voice yelled out stiffly. They all (except for Izuku, still writing as fast and accurately as he could) stared at their sensei, feeling even more terrified seeing he was affected by the… thing…  too. He was pale and swaying slightly. “Midoriya, stop scrawling on the walls-”

“It'll HELP, Sensei!” Izuku shouted before he could stop himself, hand clamping down and breaking his marker into pieces. “I can't- I can't explain how! There's no time! But it will _HELP!_ As long as we stay in the classroom we have a chance!”

Aizawa was quiet for a soul wracking minute before shaking his head and shuddering. “It doesn't matter. I'm leaving to figure out what happened. Do _not leave this room,_ regardless. No matter what happens. Not unless the walls collapse.” He ground out before leaving the room, dodging Izuku's unsteady tower of desks before he could protest and call out and say _sensei no you don't understand what could happen-_

But then he's gone and Midoriya was left perched on top of several desks with his marker broken and smearing ink all over his hands and feeling the _Thing_ breaking overhead and around them and panicking because _normal people didn't understand normal people couldn't FEEL what he did right now-_

“Midoriya?” Tokoyami of all people stepped forwards, Dark Shadow reaching up with an unbroken marker in his mouth. “I was not aware you were skilled in the arcane arts. I'm not, our Lord Yatagarasu does not ask it of me, only my dedication to the darkness of eternal night, but I will assist you where you wish.”

Midoriya took the marker shakily. Yatagarasu sounded familiar, but he couldn't pin it right now. As if to explain Tokoyami pulled a necklace out of his shirt.

An inscribed feather, darker than dark, the sparkling space of the night sky, glistened blackly and shone simultaneously as if angered. A god of the night, maybe?

“Dark Shadow and I are… unsure what being it is causing this… phenomena, but we are both aware it is not natural, and our Lord would wish us to survive it.” Izuku watched numbly as Dark Shadow withdrew and cowered behind Tokoyami as he spoke. “It is not my Lord Yatagarasu's Eternal Darkness, so I shall do what I may to stop it.”

Despite his determined stance Tokoyami's voice shook and Dark Shadow's trembling gave away his nervousness.

“This is beyond us.” Izuku whispered before he could really think of a better way to say it. “We're… I'm not that good? Not at this stuff. And this is… this is _beyond_ magic and gods and-” He choked up and scrubbed at his face. “I just- all I can do is _maybe_ make us invisible to It.”

He didn't know how to explain to Tokoyami that he'd _felt_ gods, _felt_ deities, spirits, even a _demon_ or two. All in the name of a proper hedgewitch's education of course. Nothing too dangerous. Just enough to teach him _what not to mess with._

This was. Something else entirely. It was only his own small experiences that left him capable of _thought_ right now. Tokoyami's experience with this Yatagarasu must be the reason _he_ was still thinking any. Their classmates were still standing around looking like they weren't quite home.

It was beyond this plane. The next. The many ones Izuku knew how to reach to and feel. It didn't…

It didn't fit. Any plane.

Oh god.

“It's from beyond the planes of reality.” Izuku said under his breath, horrified. “It doesn't fit. I can barely sense It, but I can't sense anything _but_ It- It's- It's a contradiction and everything and nothing and It's _from beyond the planes of reality.”_

Their classmates were still weak and confused and couldn't, _wouldn't_ understand. Tokoyami looked confused until Dark Shadow trilled loudly in _terror_ and the feather around Tokoyami's neck glistened and _shimmered_ angrily - Izuku didn't know why he knew it was angry - and Tokoyami's expression changed from vaguely dazed to _horrified._

They didn't need anymore words. Tokoyami moved to convincing their classmates to stay in the classroom, hopefully where it would be safe. Izuku resumed writing runes and script and interlocking them in every way he could think would _work._ That would hide them. Make them unnoticed. Convince the entity to slide its attention elsewhere. That this room was unimportant.

People screamed in the hallways and in the distance. Midoriya, caught in a haze of runes and writing, distracted, mind sent outwards to sense every line and dot he made, felt the emptiness when tendrils reached into someone's being and _took them._ He felt their strings not cut but left dangling and empty with nothing to hold. He felt tears dripping down his face as he prayed to every deity he could think of to keep his classmates safe. To protect them. Because there were things worse than pain and death. And that was _nothingness._

He felt when he finally linked the entire room in script and the whole room locked into its own energy loop. He didn't stop. He'd laid down the baseline. Now he had to keep going. Because with elder beings there could be no stopping. He had to keep fixing it, adding to it.

Time had no meaning to such beings, so in a place where one was pulled into their planes, time was meaningless. It was minutes or hours or days and they did not know and nobody could tell.

Izuku had gone through several markers and pens and pencils before the yelling started. The language sounded familiar, faintly, a form of Latin? A really unused one, possibly. He was more used to written languages than spoken. Izuku wondered who on earth thought they could… do _whatever_ to a being of this caliber. But they were confident, their voice only wavered a little bit in their chanting, but then Izuku was more distracted by changing his rune making to _solidify, support, do not Fall_ so that the walls didn't collapse on them.

When the presence lifted, when Izuku felt the inhuman fear screaming in his head fade, when the yelling stopped and everything stopped shaking, he felt his hands cramping up and refusing to move. Izuku took a deep breath in, out. He looked around. He'd lost track of… everything.

Tokoyami stood behind him, Dark Shadow flared and keeping the crowd from interrupting him.

Crowd?

“Wha-” His voice cracked and he realized he'd been muttering the whole time. However long it had been, it was long enough to make his throat spike with pain and dryness. “Where..?”

“You were successful, Midoriya.” Tokoyami said quietly. He sounded tired, exhausted, but did not let anyone closer. Dark Shadow hissed and growled at the ones who cautiously tried. “The classroom has been a safe haven. The… being, It did not reach in here. There is an inexplicable sense of safety and sanctuary to the air. Any who crossed near the threshold have sought cover here.”

Izuku blinked and felt his eyes ache and burn. He looked around and took a shaky breath. Fellow students from many departments were standing around the classroom, desks thrown out to make room. A few teachers and what even looked like one or two civilians stood with hardly any room to stand outside the bubble Tokoyami forced around him.

He gasped when he saw the walls. They were _covered_ in text. Scrawled wall to wall ceiling to floor in symbols, drawings, scripts, runes. He barely remembered doing any of it. He barely _understood-_ how exactly had he done all of this?

Izuku felt pain beginning to come from his hands and he looked down.

His fingers wouldn't let go of the marker in them. They were black and blue and red, from leaking ink, hopefully. But his fingers _hurt._ Badly.

Izuku whimpered and realized he was shaking.

Hedgewitch. He was a _hedgewitch._ Weak and with no magic to call his own. And he had just hidden an entire classroom filled wall to wall with people from a being beyond mortal comprehension with just runic expertise and pure force of Will.

“I think I just completed my rite of passage.” Izuku rasped before everything went dark, thankfully this time in a natural way. 

* * *

 

All Might couldn't think.

Then… he could? Somewhat.

He didn't hold onto every necklace, every scrap of paper with “protection” that odd folks had given him over the years, but he'd tried to make sure to hold onto the ones with the most meaning. Carved stone in twisting and delicate shapes sat in his pocket. A gift.

“For your Safety. And Health.” A smiling, teary eyed mother had pressed it into his hands after he'd rescued her infant from a car hijacking gone wrong. Her eyed had shimmered with things he couldn't name and _knowing_ when she said Health. 

* * *

 

Yagi was aware there were things he didn't understand in the world. Magic, ghosts, gods he didn't see or hear about anywhere else. As the Number One Hero he _heard_ things and people _told_ him things.

Oddly enough, never officially, and he didn't even know for the majority of his career. No other heroes mentioned it to him or implied they were aware. None of his superiors gave his constantly gifted trinkets more than a look of mild bemusement. Heroes were given weird things by fans all the time. And for the longest time, that was all Yagi cared or knew about it.

Then he nearly died and the looks were less secretive, less carefully poker faced and wary. That was when he learned about spells and blessings during his many small encounters with people doing hero work. From people he'd rescued, who took one look at him, and some cursed/blessed _understanding_ crossed their faces, eyes trained on his side.

A lot of those people gave him symbols of protection, of blessing, of health, of _hope._ They handed him necklaces, rocks, scraps of paper, made odd bursts of light scatter over him and _through_ him. They whispered things in languages he didn't quite catch and held his hand, making motions over his heart and side until he felt dizzy.

He couldn't say for certain whether they did anything. But he felt a little stronger knowing that, as the Symbol of Hope, he had more than just his own power backing that title up.

It was still an incredibly small part of the population. He could count on his hands the folks he remembered who truly meant and understood whatever they were doing. They were the ones he kept in contact with. Asked for favors. Asked if they knew what places to avoid. Asked if they could keep people from _noticing_ his apartment building. Asked if blessing things was alright and if they knew how to do it, could they help him with his new costume? Every measure to keep himself protected and able to continue his work needed to be taken.

Every measure was needed when he saw _trouble_ in an alleyway and his guide, showing him the places to find true magic assistance in the city, paled and told _him_ to _run._

There were things normal people (normal people, not magical, not _involved_ in the unnatural, not related to or descended from or associated with inhuman beings) were _not prepared_ to tackle. He had learned that, that day. When a line of deep scratches _tore open_ his already aching scars and nothing he did touched the monster, his guide sang words and drew in the air in flowery writing and drove it _away._

Yagi avoided interacting with those things he didn't understand after that. He asked for the professional help of his contacts, to protect, hide, assist, but he knew to avoid it himself. He wasn't equipped to take them on.

(But he was, if he just knew how to take advantage of years of protection and blessings, but nobody told him. They hinted that he could but refused to teach him and he didn't mind, because every person he met who knew these things had aged, troubled eyes darker than any professional hero. He had enough to worry about already.) 

* * *

 

* * *

All this culminated into nothing when Musutafu was shrouded in darkness and terror.

All except for a twisted rune slowly growing warmer in his pocket. Because one moment he was everyone else, paralyzed, horrified, and the next a fog cleared from his mind and he could _think,_ barely.

Shreds of… the Thing… that drifted close to him, drifted away without going after him.

All Might saw his blessing and took advantage of it. He moved.

He couldn't touch It, like normal with things he didn't understand, but it was still slow. _He could keep people away from it._ Keep them from being grabbed and going that horrible blank.

Reality still moved like it was syrup, unsure whether it wanted to drip slowly or run fast. But he could think so much clearer than his colleagues.

The man who got rid of It had eyes stronger than any witch, wizard, or hunter he'd ever met. Stronger and _deeper._ All Might felt unsure staring him in the eyes on that roof. Those eyes were strong but empty and tired.

He didn't recognize the symbols around him as anything he'd seen before but he recognized how powerful writing in blood could be. How much confidence and  it took to slice yourself open to keep bleeding and _write_ with the blood still hot from your veins. Numerous people had griped and complained about it to him before, shaking and pale. It wasn't easy physically or mentally.

Large things like this were near impossible to do.

All Might was mildly concerned when he collapsed, but honestly none of them were capable of more than mild surprise right then. He knew the man would be suffering from an exhaustion deeper than anyone would be able to explain. Not to mention blood loss was still something people like him could suffer from.

Yagi stepped over the symbols hesitantly, not sure if they would react to him smearing them, and scooped the long, lean man into his arms. Their job as heroes wasn't done. Not by a long shot.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> -All Might knew supernatural things existed after the fight with AFO because it came so close to killing him, that it marked him deep enough anyone with the right senses can tell. He's smart enough to realize that he shouldn't get involved though.  
> -Izuku is a hedgewitch. This will be elaborated more later on, but he does not have a quirk, and in this AU he does not inherit One For All. He's planning on being the first magical hero. Even if he didn't think anyone else would ever realize it was magic. That plan has gone out the window lol!  
> -Tokoyami's family worships the three-legged crow, Yatagarasu, but the version they follow is different from what you might look up. Myths are always different than what people think. Yatagarasu likes his family bcz they're all bird-headed, so they have his blessing  
> -I wish I could type Actual Emo Bird Cultist Tokoyami into the tags but mobile posting is weird   
> -Eldritch abominations are wild, yo


	3. Hizashi's Here to Die and Sass People and He's Already Out of Death

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Hizashi meets Aizawa, then he sasses a lot, and Izuku pops in too.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey guys!! I'm so! Glad!! You guys like this!!!! Aaaaaa!!!
> 
> Warnings for this chapter: a lil bit of blood, not much

Hizashi woke up again from an impromptu nap and rolled over with a sigh. He was mildly surprised to find bloodshot eyes glaring at him from a bed next to his that wasn't there before. 

“Hey there.” He said hoarsely, ignoring the pain shooting through his throat. 

The guy didn't respond. 

“Nice to meet you, I guess.” Hizashi laid his head down on his pillow and watched the guy. “You weren't here before.” 

“I'm here to keep an eye on you,” The man says a minute later, a bit too loudly. “Until and probably after we have time to interrogate you properly.” 

Hizashi winced at the obvious volume problem. That was the downside of the way he'd dealt with the abomination covering the city. He  _ had  _ to use his quirk at max volume to make sure It couldn't avoid the challenge and banishment. He'd had to. That didn't mean it excused the number of people who were probably temporarily deaf to some degree as a result. 

_ Hopefully _ temporarily. 

Property damage he could live with. Hurting people in the process? He couldn't and didn't  _ want _ to live with. 

“How long is that going to be?” He made sure to pitch his voice louder to match, even if it hurt. 

The man's head tilted just a bit, listening. “Until the city isn't in a state of emergency.” 

Hizashi flinched and shrank back into his blanket. He sat up and curled into a ball, propping his head on his knees. His whole body felt heavy and he had one hell of a headache, but it was better than before. At least he wasn't on a blood transfusion anymore. 

“My name's Yamada Hizashi.” He tried to say cheerfully, probably falling a bit flat. “You?” 

“Eraserhead.” Hizashi was silent, eyebrows raised expectantly for his actual name. “Aizawa Shouta.” Is grunted back at him dully. 

“Why were  _ you, _ specifically, put on babysitting duty?” 

Aizawa stared at him, red eyes twitching like they were itchy. “...I have an erasure quirk. Recovery Girl decided I was too… affected by the...” He zoned out  _ completely _ and Hizashi snapped his fingers at him, unbothered. When that didn't catch his attention he threw his pillow at the guy's face. 

Aizawa jumped, obviously startled, and stared at the pillow like it was a foreign object. 

“You were too affected to help out, I guess?” Hizashi said peppily. Aizawa stared at him blankly for a long minute before tossing his pillow back at him. 

“Yes. Recovery Girl decided I was too… affected… to be out in the city assisting with cleanup.” He closed his eyes and rubbed them painfully. “My quirk means I'm the best suited to keep an eye on you. And I'm not… affected… enough that I couldn't restrain you if needed.” 

“Erasure quirk? Pretty damn cool.” Hizashi placed his pillow behind him and leaned back into it. “...you're also mostly the only pro hero they can spare to play prison guard, aren't you?” 

There was a very long silence before Aizawa snorted. “Perceptive.” 

“I  _ know  _ how much of a mess the city is in right now,” Hizashi said bitterly. “I'd be more offended if they wasted a healthy hero babysitting when they could be helping clean up and organize.” 

Man, this guy was really fond of silences wasn't he? Hizashi was tired of trying to break them. But it was kind of his job, so- 

“What is your quirk?” Aizawa grinds out, looking frustrated. 

“My quirk is Voice.” Hizashi responds easily. 

“And?” 

He raises an eyebrow. “Uh. I can make my voice super loud?” More  _ silence  _ when Aizawa apparently didn't hear what he wanted. “My vocal chords are extremely advanced and more complex than the average human throat, letting me make a huge variety of sounds normal people can't on top of it.” Yeesh, Aizawa was looking frustrated. “Uhhhh, I dunno, my ears are wayyyy sturdier and a little more sensitive than average too?? Listen, man, I'm not sure what you're trying to get from me-” 

Woah. Aizawa's hair was raising up and his eyes were glowing red. 

Oh. Ow. Hizashi's throat kind of closed up and he choked awkwardly because  _ ow, that hurt.  _

“Your quirk doesn't involve influencing others’ mental states?” He bit out harshly. 

What? 

“No?” Hizashi choked out. Well, he didn't really get the word out out, but the puzzled look on his face and him shaking his head negatively must jave worked. 

When Aizawa's hair started falling down he caught sight of blood dripping  _ from his eyes what the fuck.  _

“Dude, what the hell!” Hizashi nearly swung himself out of his bed to go see if he was okay. Fuck, bleeding eyes? Normal  _ during _ eldritch monstrosities. Afterwards though?  _ Not good.  _ Lasting effects meant something was  _ majorly wrong.  _

“It's a side effect of the…” Before Aizawa could zone out fully at the train of thought Hizashi actually did stand up and hit him with his pillow again. “Stop doing that!” Aizawa glared at him over the pillow where he grabbed it like a lifeline that just spit in his face. 

“It's helping, isn't it?” Hizashi kept a hold on the other end of the pillow and stuck his tongue out at him. 

Aizawa scowled. A pretty impressive scowl, don't get him wrong. Hizashi had seen scarier but he was a very special case. Anyone else would be terrified. 

“Why do you keep doing that?” Aizawa bit out venomously.

“Hitting you with a pillow?” Hizashi blinked innocently. Aizawa was not amused. “Dude, you're zoning the fuck out every time you think about what happened. Either I let you zone for god knows how long or I snap you out of it quickly and harmlessly.” He tilted his head and chewed his lip thoughtfully. “The old lady - Recovery Girl, right? - she snapped herself out of it, but she shouldn't be  _ able  _ to. The shit that went down is like.. . trauma the rest of your life kinda shit. Humanity's fleshy hard drives don't cope well with eldritch shit.” 

Aizawa stared at him. 

“Are you gonna..?” Hizashi mimed wiping his eyes with one hand, the other still clutching his pillow. “I love our bonding time here but I don't think I wanna sleep with your blood on my pillow-”

Aizawa took the opportunity to yank his pillow from his hand and whack Hizashi upside the head with it. He fell backwards with a yelp. 

“Well it's good to see you two children getting along.” Recovery Girl's dry voice hit him before he could consider restealing his pillow to make a counterattack. When he stood back up Aizawa threw his pillow at his chest harshly, slightly red faced, and made him fall backwards onto his bed. 

Recovery Girl couldn't stay long. She checked on them and then puttered out of the room, looking every bit as exhausted as Hizashi felt. No wonder. She mentioned without hesitation when he asked that she was dealing with the entirety of Yuuei's injured or comatose. She had  _ many _ patients to keep up with. Hizashi was just currently a special case because of his part in the whole shitshow. 

He did manage to get why Aizawa's eyes were bleeding out of her though. 

“I can't fucking _ believe _ this.” Hizashi laid on his back, pillow covering his face like he could suffocate himself. 

Aizawa just grunted and leaned back in his bed, eyes closed and holding a tissue up to his cheeks to catch any stray drops of blood. 

“Whaaaaaat fucking person looks at an _ eldritch monstrosity _ and goes, heeeeeeyyyyy! That looks like a quirk I can cancel! Lemme try thaaaaat!” 

“It was a logical conclusion.” Aizawa droned. 

“Oh yeah, absolutely. I don't even blame you for it. From your perspective and experiences, namely solely dealing with quirks, it was the best, most efficient course of action.” Hizashi pulled his pillow off his face and revealed his disgruntled expression. “The problem is that to _anyone who knows anything_ about this sort of thing- god, that was the stupidest possible thing to do, outside maybe just plain tossing yourself into its tentacley arms. You realize you're lucky your _brain_ isn't permanently _fried,_ right? Or that you miraculously _still have your eyeballs?”_

“It's occurred to me, yes.” He said. “What I'm more focused on is how it is  _ you _ supposedly now so much about…” There he went again. Instead of hitting him with a pillow Hizashi plunked a gummy - from the lovely doctor, of course - off his head. Gummy bears were harder than you'd think and great ammo to throw at people. 

At least now Aizawa was less angry at him for snapping him out of it, once the lovely doctor had encouraged Hizashi to keep it up. 

“I kind of somewhat know about the eldritch monstrosity because of things you don't wanna know and stuff you'll never believe.” Hizashi said slowly, serious despite throwing candy around like a toddler. 

Aizawa opened his eyes and watched him contemplatively. 

“After the past few days? Try me.” 

“Was it several days?” Hizashi said instead of replying, rolling over onto his side and humming. “You probably got in contact with people outside the city to know that, right? Man. I hope the cleanup effort is going okay.” He sighed and threw an arm over his face. 

“You're terrible at changing the subject.” 

“And you're terrible at keeping a dialogue going but I'm at least making an effort here.” 

Hizashi kept giving vague, goofy answers to most of the things Aizawa tried to ask him. He didn't feel like dealing with this conversation yet. 

“I'm not gonna give any real explanation more than once, because it's complicated and it's bullshit and everyone's gonna try to call it fake and I'm gonna be stressed as hell during it.” Hizashi rattled out while lounged across the bed upside down. 

“Ah fuck it,  _ fine,  _ YES, I know what it was that attacked the city. No, I had nothing to do with whatever dumbasses summoned the damn thing. That's all you're getting for now.” 

“Oh, the arm? It's secretly a cyborg prosthesis and I can't get the skin quite right.” 

He waved his left arm around, nonchalantly showing off the twisting, blackish markings going all the way from his elbow to across his shoulder. 

“I got bit by a bear at a circus bar fight. You shoulda seen the other guy.” 

It was especially obvious considering he was still in the tank top he woke up in when shit hit the fan and it covered up _ none _ of it. 

“My ex and I decided to get rid of our matching name tattoos with hideous Rorschach coverups.” 

Honestly he fucking hated it being out and so visible. 

“I had an allergic reaction to a really bad henna job.” 

He usually had a compression sleeve in case there were Accidents, or at least long sleeves, but he hadn't had the time to pull one on when he woke up. 

“There was a magical girl's magical dog who ripped it off. Don't worry, I Got Better.” 

Recovery Girl hadn't mentioned it but probably just because she could recognize the weird birthmark as what it was. Yanno. A gnarly birthmark? Hizashi knew it was a particularly ugly one but  _ come on.  _

And finally his favorite line to spout:

“It fell off and crawled away, you know, like a zombie hand?” 

Oh ho ho, but there were _more_ invasive questions. For someone who was half brain dead right now Aizawa sure did love to try to weasel shit out of him. And Hizashi loved watching him get frustrated at the inevitable garbage he said. 

“You think my quirk has a sympathizing factor-? Dude, no, it's probably because we're all exhausted and we all got messed with by an eldritch fucker, so you're having a harder time keeping yourself as enigmatic and mysterious as you'd like. It doesn't mean that I'm friggin brainwashing people.” Hizashi rolled his eyes. “You keep zoning out every other sentence and you're wondering why you're  _ talking  _ too much? Your head's not on straight, man.  _ Nobody's _ is.” 

“Then why are  _ you  _ still capable of being a little shit?” 

Hizashi laughed nervously and shoved his pillow back in his face. That was a LOADED question now wasn't it. 

He didn't surface for several minutes until their door creaked open and  _ holy shit All Might.  _

All Might and a small green child. And a bird child, too. 

“Hello, Aizawa-san. Yamada-san, right?” All Might said  _ very _ tiredly and whoo boy even the Number One was affected pretty bad by this whole thing, because he looked like he was gonna  _ tank.  _ “I'm afraid I'm going to have to leave Midoriya-kun in your care.” He looked like he'd had an argument over this course of action and lost spectacularly. “I can’t explain all the details at the moment, but Midoriya-kun has information on the Incident that will have to wait until we're not in the first response stage of disaster relief.” 

Aizawa was looking at All Might like he was told he'd be meeting a puppy and was instead handed a turtle, as a guy who didn't like puppies and wasn't sure how he felt about turtles. That metaphor was probably going somewhere too complicated but Hizashi still felt it accurately explained the baffled, startled look on Aizawa's face. 

“I-I just- I  _ told  _ you that they would help protect the class…” Midoriya actually looked down at the floor and scuffed his foot awkwardly, tearing up. Hizashi had  _ no  _ idea what any of that meant and, in fact, had no fuckin clue who this cute kid was or how he was connected to the eldritch monster. 

“Problem child,” Aizawa sighed and shook his head. 

“I'm sorry I can't stay, Midoriya,” Bird kid said unhappily. “But I must make sure my family withstood the dark force’s presence. I'm sure they did well, taking into account His care, but…” 

“It's alright, Tokoyami, thank you for helping me.” Midoriya hugged him weirdly and that's when Hizashi realized the kid's hands were wrapped in soft bandages and covered in what looked like ink stains of all colors all the way to the elbow. 

Oh. There was ink all over him, now that Hizashi looked. 

“You're too hurt to help with cleanup too, huh?” Hizashi said cheerily once the door had closed and Midoriya had settled into a chair next to Aizawa's bed shyly. 

“Ah! I! Um!” He looked like he wanted to curl up into a ball and disappear. Aizawa's firm expression told him he wasn't allowed to stay quiet. “I… hurt my hands. Writing. Too much. During the… thing. I broke several writing utensils and got cuts all over my fingers on top of it.” Midoriya looked down at his hands, embarrassed. “Recovery Girl says I strained my hands so bad she doesn't want me to be out and helping in the city like everyone else. Plus, since my wards helped protect the classroom when nothing anyone else did worked, everyone's been asking questions and I- I can't really answer them, right now, and nobody really has time to stop and listen to an answer either…” His babbling trailed off and he continued staring resolutely at his lap. 

Aizawa moved from slouched in his bed to sitting straight up. His eyes flickered from Midoriya to Hizashi and back and forth. 

Hizashi stared at him wondering what the fuck he was thinking. Then the kid's words registered and his eyebrows rose. 

“Wards? You warded a classroom?” Hizashi's eyebrows furrowed. “From… an  _ eldritch abomination? _ Successfully?” 

Midoriya looked up, surprised. “Y-yes! I think- well I wasn't supposed to, but-” 

“Holy _ shit,  _ kid, what the  _ fuck.”  _ Hizashi gave him a very strong look of respect. “That's seriously… What the fuck. Kudos. Fucking  _ kudos,  _ kid. How  _ old  _ are you? Have you even had a Rite yet? Are you even supposed to be  _ practicing  _ yet??” 

Midorita turned  _ bright  _ red. “I- I'm fourteen! And n-no, I haven't, I shouldn't be, but-” He looked like he was about to die. “I couldn't stand by while an Elder Being hurt my classmates, not when I could at least  _ try  _ to protect us.” 

“Agh, no, not an Elder, you'll recognize  _ those _ from the overwhelming sense of awe and power and sudden urge to sacrifice chickens.  _ That _ thing was eldritch, definitely.” 

Aizawa's face was filling with slight horror and resignation, seeing that they were both on the same page of Hizashi's bullshit. A page he did not have the book to. A book they were both fully capable of talking about without ever cluing him in on what the hell was going on. 

“Oh! That's… interesting.” Midoriya frowned slightly, shivering. “How do  _ you _ know the difference?” Hizashi raised an eyebrow. 

“How do you think?” 

“Wow.” Midoriya whispered. “That's… scary. I don't think I could ever face down an Elder.” 

“Hopefully you never  _ have  _ to, kiddo. It's not fun.” 

“I'm going to sleep.” Aizawa announced loudly and laid down pointedly. They both looked at each other mildly surprised, Hizashi quickly looking mischievous. 

“Hey kid, you wanna learn the fine points of magical doublespeak?” 

Midoriya's eyes practically started sparkling. Oh he was going to  _ like  _ this kid.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hizashi fucking Yamada: I just met this guy and he's a grouch and an asshole. I'm gonna start a pillow fight for the sake of his mental health!
> 
> -Musutafu is not doing aight. People from outside the city tried to help while it happened and nothing succeeded, but now that it's gone they're sending disaster relief in. There's a lot of both infrastructural damage and a lot of people who're... not okay.   
> -Aizawa is struggling because he's a dumbass for trying to use his quirk on a fucking eldritch being and he's gonna be okay, but his brain is currently the fleshy equivalent of a computer that's trying to reboot itself after running something it couldn't handle. He'll be okay eventually.  
> -everything Hizashi has said, to someone without the context of "magic might be real", can be mistaken as him just spitting out random words. Aizawa is suffering.   
> -Izuku is thrilled to meet someone who knows what they're talking about but he's also Scared because with this kinda stuff you learn from EXPERIENCE and that shit. Isn't fun.   
> -All Might is tired, let him rest. He's still a bit stronger than canon because he hasn't passed on OFA to anyone but tbh he's probably gonna poof into skinny form the moment he drops Izuku off.

**Author's Note:**

> I hope you guys enjoy!!! Come hmu on my bnha tumblr @gay4eraser or check out the link to my bnha discord from there


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